


Died Screaming

by IowaGuy1979



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Blood and Violence, F/F, despite the warning the rape is stopped before it happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:36:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23021083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IowaGuy1979/pseuds/IowaGuy1979
Summary: Two lost friends find each other, as everything around them falls.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	Died Screaming

It had been a long time since she had been in one of these places, she reflected.  
Quite the archetypal punk rocker in her youth, the once near electric blue hair faded to its natural strawberry blonde. Dying one’s hair wasn’t really important, these days.

Chloe Price mentally shook herself, now sure as shit wasn’t the time to go through memory lane. A group had camped out in this music store, hopefully with quite a bit of food. A mild growling followed that thought. “Damnit Max” she muttered” quiet down.”

“Not like I can fucking help it”, Max (NEVER Maxine) Caulfield whispered.  
The group was sitting in the back of the store, by the “Employees Only”.

“We need to ninja this, Max”, Chloe spoke quietly. The two women crept softly to the gang, hiding behind shelves of CDs. Just as they were within a few feet, Max stumbled over a box. Suddenly, the lights flashed on, and a song blared through the speakers, something pretty damn appropriate.

All our times have come

Here but now they’re gone

The unwashed men looked around. “There! Those are the bitches that killed Tommy!’  
Right, Chloe thought, that was the guy who had Max pinned against the wall inside the Space Needle, a week ago. 

Max absolutely HAD to have a miniature version of it, fuck knows why. As they had walked through the gift shop, a tall man had grabbed Max’s neck, shoving her against the wall. “Been quite a while for me”, he grinned. It was not a nice grin. “Now just keep quiet”, he said as his hand brushed against her chest.

Suddenly, the top half of the guy’s head was missing, along with a bang that echoed around the shop. Blood and brains splashed across Max’s face, as well as the wall behind her. She screamed in a shrill voice, collapsing to the ground. Chloe ran over, carrying a Smith and Wesson .357 magnum, vaulting across a overturned rack of shirts. “Max! Oh, god! Oh godgodgod!, she gasped. “I had thought.. thought..” “Damn good thing you’re a awesome shot.” Max giggled , at a slightly higher pitch than normal, eyes a little glazed. Chloe gripped Max tight against herself. “it’s OK,. it’s OK...”

Bastard deserved a much slower death, she thought, as she shoved Max down, and ducked down herself, behind a shelf of CD’s. Gunfire echoed across the store. “What the hell happened?”, she shouted. “ I guess I hit the main power switch, sorry!”, Max replied

“Well, time to kick some ass,” Chloe said, as she snuck around. Fortunately, these guys were morons, all grouped together, shooting wildly. How the fuck they had survived this long was a mystery. She crept up behind a fat guy that smelled like he hadn’t showered in a week, and probably hadn’t. A quick twist of the neck to both sides, and he was gone.

Come on baby, don’t fear the reaper

come on take my hand, don’t fear the reaper

we’ll be able to fly, don’t fear the reaper

baby, I'm your man

She grabbed his shotgun, and put a bullet in each of the 6 others heads. The whole thing had taken maybe 40 seconds. “Shit, Chloe!” Max yelled as she ran up “That was like the Matrix”

“Just call me Neo.”, she replied, wearing that devil may care grin, that always made Max’s knees weak. Quickly, the two collected the canned food. “Score!”, Chloe smiled. Now to head outside, as the cymbals played, ending the song.

They stepped out. The front speaker changed to a different tune.

We skipped the light fandango

turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

They surveyed the empty street, as a section of the Seattle Times flew by, slapping against the store’s wall.

The shown back page, had a full page drawing of Jesus, crucified, with a crown of thorns. The block print on the bottom proclaimed PRAY FOR US

“Hell of a lot of good their faith did them”, Chloe snorted. “Feels like a century’s gone by, not about 7 years”

As they walked down the street, neon green graffiti screamed out, 'FUCK CORONA! GUINNESS RULES!', from the brick facade of a bar. That damn virus… 

No reason to worry, the talking heads on TV and the fools in D.C. said, flu’s deadlier.

Well, they sure as hell were proven wrong a few months later. Fucking thing had evolved to a 99.5% death rate. 

The last thing on TV, had been that moron in the Oval Office, saying everything would be just fine, no need to worry. Yeah, sure, riots in the street, but, everything’s copacetic, Dear Leader says. Hope he died, from the very same damn thing he had said was no threat.

Chloe had been in Seattle, getting the hell away from the Bay, when the woman who had ruined her life 5 years ago, sat down on the bench next to her. 

“Max fucking Caulfield, what the shit are you doing here?” Chloe shouted, eyes burning in rage.

“C..Chloe?”, she gasped. “I’m so sorry! I should have called! But, I was sure you’d moved on, that you’d forgotten me”

“I couldn’t forget the one that had been the final screw pulled out of my life, crashing it!” she growled.

“What.. what can I do?”, Max sobbed, guilt stabbing through her.

“well, you can stop with the waterworks”, she muttered. “Maybe show me what in this city was so damn magical, to keep to from calling me”

“O..Okay" Max responded, “How about Powell’s City Of Books?”

“Once a nerd, always a nerd”, Chloe smirked, as she was led to the nearest bus stop.

That had been a little over 6 years ago. Chloe eventually revealed that she had left Arcadia Bay, after the discovery of Rachel Amber’s body. She had been her angel, stopping her depressive spiral, after her dad's ,and then Max’s abandonment.

But she left,too, like everyone Chloe loved. Still angry, she had went to Seattle, to vent her rage on the only one who had left her that she could. The bench meeting had happened on the first day she was there. It was a fucking miracle, probably planned by Rachel.

As the virus spread, more people flooded the hospitals. Chloe had gotten worried for Joyce, so Max agreed to go back to Arcadia Bay. Joyce Price died in a hospital room, gasping for breath, wondering where her daughter was, just two hours before they got there. David had tried to convince her to stay, but, the only reason she even partly cared about that shit hole was dead.

As the streets became emptier, Max and Chloe headed back to Seattle. The plan was to load up her truck as much as possible, and head into the woods. Cities were deathtraps, with the gangs roaming around.

As the song continued, Max tapped her on the shoulder “Wanna dance? Been a million years since I’ve danced”

“Not even remotely that long”, Chloe smiled, as she took her hand, placing her hand on Max’s back.

And so, it was that later

as the Miller told his tale

that her face at first just ghostly

turned a whiter shade of pale

“This song makes no sense, but, it’s a pretty good slow song to dance to”, Chloe smiled.

“It took the end of the world, to find my world”, Max whispered, eyes shining

Their lips met, in a motion as inevitable as the tides that washed against Puget Sound.

Everything may be gone, but, they had all they needed, right there.

**Author's Note:**

> I heard Blue Oyster Cult's best known song earlier today, and the thought of Chloe and Max creeping through a abandoned store, when suddenly the power comes on, and that song is played, popped into my head
> 
> This takes place in a alternate timeline, where COVID-19 is deadlier, hence the corona graffiti. Everything in canon is moved forward 7 years, to coincide. As far as the epidemiology goes, I had no clue what I was doing.
> 
> I know this is in poor taste, to say the least, as people are dying. I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. sorry
> 
> Stephen King's The Stand was also an inspiration, where the part about the newspaper came from, as well as the black mood I've been in lately.
> 
> The title is from "The Earth Died Screaming" by Tom Waits
> 
> First lyrics are, of course, from "Don't Fear The Reaper", by Blue Oyster Cult
> 
> Second lyrics are from the song "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harum
> 
> To the, no doubt, very few who read this, thank you.


End file.
